How Can Oral History Support Restorative Justice?

Thursday, June 14th

1:00-2:15pm Eastern/10-11:15am Pacific

Join oral historian Alisa del Tufo and professor Luis C. Sotelo Castro in this online Practitioner Support Network session about the many ways in which oral history can provide support and contribute to healing in restorative justice work.

Restorative Justice is an alternative to traditional criminal justice interventions that focus on punishment. Restorative Justice promotes empathy, accountability and healing through processes that center the voice and needs of those harmed while helping the offender take responsibility for their offenses and make reparation. RJ also integrates the larger community into these processes in a variety of ways that expand notions of harm, support and healing. Some oral historians are integrating narrative practices into Restorative Justice efforts. In this PSN we will explore some of that work.

Alisa Del Tufo is an oral historian and co-founder of Groundswell: Oral History for Social Change. Her policy and legislative efforts have resulted in federal, state and local reforms, including the establishment of a 3 million dollar fund for housing support for women survivors of violence and children, changes in criminal justice, child welfare and health reform. In addition, she consults with individuals and organizations using a variety of narrative and community engagement strategies to build positive change. Del Tufo is the author or two books on domestic violence and child abuse and multiple articles. She has been teaching at the Marlboro Graduate School of Management and Sustainable Practice, Middlebury and Southern Vermont Colleges. Del Tufo is a visiting faculty member at Bennington for spring 2018.

Luis C. Sotelo Castro is the Canada Research Chair in Oral History Performance and Associate professor in the Department of Theater at Concordia University. He is a dual national Colombian/British artist-researcher. His practice is performance-based. He creates live environments of memory in collaboration with other artists and participants from specific communities and locations. He also explores how participatory oral history performance might facilitate listening.